NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry on Thursday said that Kerala cannot make changes on the list of COVID-19 hotspots on its own. Earlier, the centre had released a list designating 7 districts in the state as hotspots while 6 other districts were designated as orange zones. However, the state cabinet which met later on Thursday had decided to redesignate the infected areas as zones.

According to the state government, the northern districts of Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram will come under the red zone while Wayanad and Kottayam districts will come under the green zone. All the other districts will come under the orange zone.

However, this classification made by the state government has not gone down well with the centre. According to the Union Ministry of Health, though the state can add a district into the list of hotspots, it has to consult the centre in order to remove a district from the list of hot zones. The ministry also added that the list was prepared based on the figures provided by Kerala.